Non-intimate relationships can best be described as those relationships that are not intimate in nature. Whereas intimate relationships focus on dating and courtship, non-intimate relationships include relationships such as general friendships, golfing buddies, sewing partners, investment groups, and sailing clubs to name a few.
For many people, the act of acquiring and maintaining a non-intimate relationship is a difficult, time-consuming process that is both challenging and difficult. In general, the method of acquiring new non-intimate relationships can best be described as ad hoc, resulting from activities such as attending parties, coaching teams, playing on sports teams, or taking a walk in the park. Once people have initially met, non-intimate relationships take a number of mutually agreeable interactions before they build into what can best be described as relationships of value. Only a small percentage of people who meet develop their relationship into a non-intimate relationship of value.
Although there are many established formalized methods to initiate intimate relationships, such as dating services and classified ads, the development of non-intimate relationships usually must follow a different course. This is simply because people feel uncomfortable and avoid situations where they may be matched with a particular person with the idea of establishing a non-intimate relationship. While people generally feel comfortable going out in groups to make new non-intimate relationships, they generally, and strongly associate one-on-one matching methods such as dating services and classified ads as methods to build intimate relationships. Given the large differences between building an intimate and a non-intimate relationship, current methods to establish intimate relationships would largely fail if one were to attempt to use the same methods to establish non-intimate relationships.
Previous computerized methods have been established to develop intimate relationships. Such methods include on-line dating services for locating and matching people based on a user's characteristics and criteria for establishing intimate relationships. These one-on-one matching methods include the use of a computer network system or the use of the internet. While the computer algorithms used for one-on-one matching of people can vary, a common method used is the “Assignment Method” which is well-documented in operations research publications. This method and more recent computer dating methods suggest that the one-on-one matching of individuals should be performed in a “two-way” manner such that two people are only paired up only if they closely match each other's stated preferences. Results are then relayed to the users of the service through a variety of means such as web pages, telephones and pagers. While these methods suggest that one could be matched to make new acquaintances and friends, it is doubtful that most people would use this one-on-one matching method to secure new “non-intimate” friends for reasons earlier described. Furthermore, the methods described in this prior art are insufficient to match people into groups of three or more people which often provide people with the best vehicle to establish new non-intimate relationships.
Whereas the current matching methods employed to pair people up primarily requires that people be interactively compared to the others and scored for mutual compatibility as illustrated in FIG. 14A, the methods used to match people into groups are different and more complex as illustrated in FIG. 14B. While the one-to-one (individual) pairing of people requires the compatibility score between two people to be above a certain optimized value, the many-to-many (group) comparisons and placement of people into groups requires that all people are compatible with every other person within the group. For example, using FIG. 14B, if people #2–6 were mutually and highly compatible with person #1, but not with each other, they would not be placed into the same group. Moreover, only one of them at most could be placed into the eventual group(s) to which person #1 is assigned.
Additional shortfalls of the prior art as it relates to matching people into groups, fall into two areas including: (1) lack of group-specific parameters and functionality to establish a group; and (2) lack of functionality normally associated with establishing and maintaining a group once established. With respect to the first area, as current art is focused on making one-to-one matches, current art does not include provisions for allowing users to specify a preferred group size. The prior art also does not provide for users to specify preferred group meeting times which are often critical to matching people into groups of larger size. With respect to the second area, the prior art does not provide for an automated means to find new mutually compatible members for an established group from a much larger pool of candidates contained within a profiles database. Moreover, the prior art does not include functionality that tends to be strongly associated with managing group activities such as providing capabilities to schedule meetings and maintain an on-line posting of group events.
It would be desirable to provide a method that directly addresses the acquisition and maintenance of non-intimate relationships. It would also be desirable to establish a method of developing non-intimate relationships for people desiring to meet or interact with other persons “in person”. In addition, it would also be desirable to establish a method for establishing and maintaining non-intimate relationships between groups of people.